A Game of Thrones : Book 1 by George R.R. Martin

I'm halfway through A Game of Thrones (or as one of my book reading buddies calls it...Throner Boner) and it is SO. GOOD.

Disclaimer: I don't think I would enjoy this book as much without having watched the HBO show. The show follows the book fairly closely and has helped me map out all the different characters and families involved...because there are a LOT of characters / families to keep track of. Normally I like to read the book before I see the movie/show, but in this instance I'm glad the show came before the book for me.

My initial fear with starting this book was that it was going to be really complex and hard to plug through (i.e. Lord of the Rings). But it's surprisingly easy for me to make my way through it. I would compare it to Lord of the Rings (fantasy), Chronicles of Narnia (multiple story lines), and the TV show Rome (smutty, soap opera saga). Each chapter focuses on a different character which also helps streamline the story.

Also, this book is loooong. Definitely makes me glad that I'm reading via Kindle because this would be a hard book to try to read on the bus because of it's thickness.

The plot is fairly complex, so it's a hard book to summarize...I should be able to do a better job of it once I finish the book and have a concise explanation mapped out in my head. But I will tell you this...it's very easy to slip into the stories each character has and lose yourself in the book. However, because of it's complexity, I do recommend that once you decide to start reading this book - you have some time to devote to it. It's definitely not a book that you can pick up, go through a couple of pages, put down, and then come back to it.

I've already read summaries of the next 4 books and am stoked to read those...book 2 has been downloaded! But due to their length and amount of attention you need to pay to these books, I'll definitely have to take a break between books so that I'm reading them as thoroughly as possible.

Rank (halfway through): A!